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Adelheid
Adelheid Strumfelder (formely just Adelheid) is the first of three characters played by one of IO's newer users, Addie. The character is the only child of the now-deceased British Staff Sergeant, Rhys Bevan. Character History Origins (Please see Adelheid's official bio for information on Adelheid's origins.) Time with the Allied forces In the neutral thread Get back here with that milk!, the first thread on IO featuring Adelheid, the hungry child is running down the street of a small French town. Chased by a farmer and a small mob after stealing his milk, she runs past the British soldier Stephen Colly, who calls for her pursuers to halt. After a small confrontation between him and the farmer, he scatters the crowd after showing his rifle, and goes over to Adelheid, who is standing fearfully nearby. Several questions and a chocolate bar later, a shocking twist comes to light, and Colly is stunned to learn of Adelheid's father's identity. He then takes the child back to a makeshift Allied base, where she is questioned by Mac Bargett and David Bevan. Becoming good friends with both Colly and Bargett, Adelheid is placed in the care of a few Allied nurses at the base, Colly having departed for a mission in Italy. Escaping the nurses, she comes across the hospital room containing the wounded Joe Claude and Daniel Brennan. Shyly approaching them (and unintentionally causing them to think they are hallucinating), she eventually gains the confidence to come close, and strikes up a conversation with the pair. She takes a particular liking to Claude, seeing as how he is able to speak German, and is not intimidated by the horrific facial scars he received during torture. Unfortunately, the happy moment is interrupted by a bomb going off in the hospital, and the three struggle to escape afterwards. Shortly after the bombing incident, the commanding officer of the Allied base orders Adelheid be placed in the care of a local French family. The Pierpont family is chosen - they have connections to the military, and are well-trusted by the commanding officer. Adelheid does not take a shine to them, finding the Mrs. Pierpont to be bossy and intimidating, and runs away. She is stopped, however, by a vision of her father's angel, who guides her towards a nearby Joe Claude. The two are stumbled upon by Theodorijk Wijzemens, who took part in Claude's torture, and who has now repented, deserted the Nazis and taken on a new identity. When bitter conversation erupts between Claude and Wijzemens, Adelheid is frightened, but comforted by Claude afterwards. After returning to her adoptive family in the village of Ville-de-Bontecou, Adelheid meets a final Allied soldier, Peter T. Branigan, who acts as her babysitter for a few hours while the Pierponts go out. Sadly, this would be the last happy memory she would have of an Allied soldier, for orders came through for her to be arrested a few weeks afterwards. Managing to escape the soldiers who had come to get her, a heartbroken Adelheid fled, convinced that she was hated by the Allied soldiers. After all, to her young mind, why else would they say she was a spy? Time with the Axis forces Not too long after running away, Adelheid is mugged by a group of Hitler Youth. Nearly strangled to death, she is saved by the German commander Jonas Merhoff, reminded of his own childhood beatings by the Hitler Youth boys' attack. After Adelheid shows difficulty breathing, she is brought to a German medic, falling unconscious on the way. She is comforted by Merhoff when she comes to, and taken to the inn the Hauptmann was staying at to spend the night. The next morning, a terrified Adelheid refuses to approach Merhoff, and the man attempts to comfort her. He also takes time to try and brainwash Adelheid, carefully wording his sentences to make the Nazis seem likeable, but the angel of Rhys Bevan steps in to save his daughter. During breakfast afterwards, Adelheid quietly confesses to feeling frightened by both sides of the war, and Merhoff suddenly realizes how badly the war is affecting others. Seemingly disillusioned, he brings the girl to a park, where the two have a private conversation on the matter. Not too long after being found by Merhoff, Adelheid is paid a visit by the infamous Erhard Strumfelder, who had been sent to check up on her injuries. Adelheid had suffered a concussion - it came to light in the park a week earlier, where she complained of not feeling well. However, the visit would end horrifically, with Adelheid being beaten, shot and taken captive by Strumfelder. Her journal would be found in one of her skirt pockets, and, upon finding out she knew Joe Claude, Strumfelder decided to use her as bait. Under threat of hurting Adelheid, whom Strumfelder decided to keep alive, Strumfelder has lured the Corporal successfully into Germany, perhaps to finish Claude off. He would then lie to Jonas and Adelheid, saying to each that the other was dead, attempting to sever the emotional link between them. To further keep Adelheid on a leash, Strumfelder also became her official guardian; she now carries the name of Adelheid Strumfelder. After her capture, Adelheid was kept in an unknown German hospital, where she continuously refused to eat and had taken on a neutral emotional state. Strumfelder best described this state as "almost dead inside", and tried to take advantage of the wounded child. When she refused to believe he was being kind, her neutral-faced coping mechanism keeping her from feeling hurt, Strumfelder lost his temper. He destroyed her diary, belittling and threatening Adelheid, but she still kept face. It was only when he handed Adelheid a gun, telling her she had to either kill herself or help him, that she snapped. The gun was thrown at the wall, Adelheid screaming angrily at Strumfelder, and the weapon accidentally discharged. Strumfelder was accidentally shot in the chest, and the guards to her room rushed in after hearing the gunshot. Adelheid was pulled off the bed by her hair, fainting soon afterwards, the angel of Rhys Bevan comforting her as she did. He had been there almost the entire time. After that, Adelheid spent close to a month in an SS Prison Cell, still refusing to eat. Fazing in and out of a stupor, seemingly on the brink of madness and starving herself to death, she unknowingly met her uncle, Aksel Bavenn (formerly James Bevan). He comforted her, giving her chocolate and speaking to her, but lost his temper after he dropped his journal on the cell's bed. Adelheid reached for it to give back to him, but Aksel - thinking Adelheid was going to take it - raised his arm to hit her. It was only a screaming fit from Adelheid that kept him from hurting her, and he left her cell with a heavy heart. After much debate among those higher than Strumfelder, it was decided that Adelheid would be returned to Strumfelder's care. Delivered by car to the man's penthouse in Berlin, one of the guards she was with was thrown off a balcony by Strumfelder, all because the soldier had carried the weak girl up to Strumfelder's floor. After scaring off the other guard, the disfigured Nazi managed to get Adelheid to walk to his room, where she would find herself thrown into a wardrobe. That wardrobe would be where she would live, and from then on, Strumfelder made it his mission to raise her as a future Nazi. He also warned her that, if she irritated him enough, she would be struck repeatedly by his cane. But even though Adelheid had been enrolled in the Jungmädelbund, and attended to a school for the children of Schutzstaffel members (Strumfelder is part of the organization), she remained anti-Nazi. Recently, she has tried to outfox and escape Strumfelder on numerous occasions, even resorting to writing her journal in a poetic code. Her most recent attempt to run away from her new home involved sneaking into a line of concentration camp prisoners headed for a death camp. This newest attempt at freedom was spawned from her meeting up with Joe Claude again recently. Strumfelder, however, found and beat her harshly before she could speak properly to Joe. An odd series of dreams also followed, as written about in her new journal - which was, ironically, courtesy of Strumfelder. Description Adelheid is nearly the mirror image of her father. Like Rhys, she has black, straight hair and black eyes, although the former goes down to her shoulders. She has Rhys's aim, although her weapon was a (mostly) harmless slingshot instead of a gun. The girl also seems to have inherited her father's quiet temperament, and is submissive and flighty. The latter has been made worse from years of bullying and her time being homeless. However, she is also kind and sweet-natured, mannerly and curious, and has a habit of tilting her head to the side like a puppy when confused or asking questions. When she loves someone, she loves them deeply, and breaking her trust breaks her heart even more. Due to some faults in her upbringing, Adelheid is very naïve and unknowing. She does not understand the concept of family, nor does she know what a mother and father are. She often refers to the Allies as "Not-Nazis", and believes that the German word "Onkel" ("Uncle" in English) is an informal version of the "Herr" ("Mister/Mr." in English) title. Adelheid has also shown a coping mechanism in which she distances herself from the world, and her emotions seem to shut off. This usually happens when her negative emotions are at their most extreme, or when something is too confusing or overwhelming for her. Further emotional stress - such as the shooting incident with Strumfelder - pushes her into a stupor, in which she barely reacts to the world around her. As of now, she is also in a depression, due to her "abandonment" by Merhoff and her capture by Strumfelder. After being brought to Strumfelder's house, the abuse from Strumfelder and the fear of it has made her sad and shy. She is frightened of him, obeying him in public only because of this. Distant from other children, and a target for bullying and rumours, her black hair and black eyes have earned her several remarks. Self-conscious among the supposed "Aryans", she finds comfort only in reading, recently taking a shine to medieval history and geography. Relationships and Family Rhodri Williams, James Bevan and David Bevan are all Adelheid's biological uncles; however, only the last is aware of her existance, and not at all close. Gautier and Léa Pierpont were her guardians until Adelheid's arrest by the Allies, and Stephen Colly and Mac Bargett could once be considered brotherly or uncle figures. Brennan was considered a close friend, and she is an acquaintance of Theodorijk Wijzemens, having only met him once. She also had a toy horse, Silber, that she considered her closest friend, but the toy was destroyed during the mugging by the Hitler Youth boys. Adelheid was close to the nuns who ran her orphanage, and often compares her new friends to them, closely identifying the kindly Sister Kiel with Colly in particular. She fears all Nazis, and even though he saved her, Jonas Merhoff intimidates Adelheid. She has yet to realize how attached he is to her, and how her presence has affected his views on Nazism. Due to recent events listed in the above sections, she also feels he abandoned her to Strumfelder. Currently, Adelheid is the captive of Erhard Strumfelder, and he is also her legal guardian. He is one of few people to ever earn the strongest feelings of hate from Adelheid, next to those who destroyed Adelheid's orphanage and the Allied soldiers who arrested her. As for her beliefs about the sides of the war, Adelheid is frightened of them both, convinced they are only out to destroy and hurt. Adelheid also believes that Merhoff left her to suffer under Strumfelder, having not seen him when he was trying to communicate with her from a window. This has further fueled her distrust of the Nazis. Adelheid has also been found to be extremely attached to Joe Claude (whom she calls "Herr Claude"; it is unknown as of yet how she figured out his last name, since he only gave her his first). She sees him as "the kindest Not-Nazi of all" in one thread, and perhaps regards him as highly as she does her "Rhys-angel". One might say that she sees Joe as almost a bit of a big brother figure, or even, to a point, the father figure she really never had. Trivia * A raven appears frequently in threads involving Adelheid, presumably symbolic of her father who was often described as having "raven-like hair". Coincidentally, the crest of the ancient Rhys family, medieval Lords of South Wales, is the raven. Even more noteworthy is the fact that in ancient Welsh and Irish poetry and literature, warriors are often referred to as "ravens". This is particularly apt for Rhys Bevan, an Irish-Welsh soldier. Whether or not the raven is a figment of Adelheid's imagination (in a similar vein to the Rhys-angel) has not been revealed. Category:Characters of Issuing Orders